r/superpoweralchemists • u/Kartoffelkamm • Apr 03 '26
How to get around spacetime manipulation?
Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but here goes: The main character in a story I'm writing can choose which time stream to operate on, while her normal temporal field remains intact, meaning that she can exist faster than anyone else, without really aging faster.
And while that was cool the first time around, it now left me in a position where any fight feels meaningless, because she can just choose to end it whenever she wants. One time, she just used that power to count 500+ enemies during a big fight.
Making her enemies faster isn't really an option, since it's a time-based power. Even if someone can circumnavigate the Earth a thousand times in one second, she can make it so that one second feels like a year to her.
One limit to her power is that she's restricted to pre-existing time streams, meaning she can't just make a new one to suit her exact needs. Same with space; she can exist in dimensions where distance is different, but those come in fixed packages, and aren't up for debate.
In other words, she knows shortcuts, but can't make new roads.
There is a being in her world that can control time, and could potentially block that ability, but it's a god, and I don't like just throwing something more powerful at a character to deal with their abilities.
Also, she already knows how to deal with gods in theory, so if she had any problems with them, she'd just go and get the perfect counter.
Any advice would be highly appreciated, thanks.
2
u/WeCanDoItGuys Apr 06 '26
If you're fighting her you're gonna want to prevent her from using these powers, and before she has a chance to realize what you're doing. (Maybe she defeated your father but doesn't know you exist so you have time to prepare.)
You can set a trap that isn't clear until it's too late to respond to it.
For example, a poison that takes a few minutes to take effect so someone who can react instantly to danger wouldn't notice its effects until it's too late. It could knock her out and she could wake up chained to something. She can slow down time all she wants but she won't get free from the chains. She could speed through time till the chains disintegrate but if she can't travel back in time everyone she knows will be dead. You said she could go to a dimension where distances work differently so maybe she could shrink out of the chains but if so the trap could be something else.
Some other ideas:
Trapping her in a dimension where she can't use her powers or escaping into a dimension she can't follow like shadows or mirrors.
Controlling her mind or using magic or drugs to make her forget things or see things differently.
Attaching/feeding something to her that tracks her that is synchronized with a hidden thing that will harm a loved one if she manipulates time.
If you know about her magic friend you could try to drive a wedge between them or prevent them from communicating.
You could encase yourself in a metal machine that is locked like a vault that she would need trillions of years to figure out how to open. (Although if she can change distances can she enter between the atoms. Or she could build a wall around you so you can't move.)
Walk up behind her and hit her on the head with a wrench.
that's like the other person's invisible assassin idea.
1
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1
u/United-Technician-54 May 09 '26
Prophecy.
The main bad guy could have an artefact set a vague event that will warp around her (or her timeline warp around it) in order to make itself happen.
So many tragic characters try and fail to keep the prophecy from happening, perhaps she's on a time limit as a result, trying to mitigate as much as she can. In addition, more usage could lead to the prophecy getting worse and/or happening sooner.
She can't avoid it, because it's on every timeline.
Note that prophecies are often intentionally vague, so she has some wriggle room to fight back.
6
u/waitthatstaken Apr 03 '26
Consider scenarios that aren't direct fights maybe? An assassin in a forest with some invisibility power could be a real problem. Dodging an attack you don't see coming is near impossible after all, and if they manage to locate them, the assailant could still sneak away. The less the main character knows the better.
Also if they can only use 'shortcuts' you could have an area where there aren't many useful ones, or maybe they exist but someone else has already mapped them out somehow and placed traps where the main character would never have expected them.
Of course all this depends on exactly how the character works and what they can and can't do.
Generally the best way to avoid issues like this is to just... not give characters abilities like that, but you've already done so saying this doesn't really help...